Recommend a USB HDD/SSD enclosure to read a hard drive

[onerousdeporte]

Looking for a usb hard drive reader to plug in a spinning metal drive so that I can upgrade someones drive to a ssd.

Thank you

[Morat]

I don't think that there's a huge amount to choose between them if you're just looking for a one off use. I'd want at least USB3 for speed.  If you're looking for something that you want to keep for a while and will deal with drives that are current now and might need to be played with in the future, things become more expensive as NVME comes into the picture.

https://tinyurl.com/ycxvj4rr (amazon link)

 is something I'm toying with buying at the moment to help me deal with a spinning rust/2.5" SSD and NVME moves but it's probably overkill for your situation right now.

[Polar Bear]

I use one of these for copying from old sata drives.

[Jaded]

I use one of these for copying from old sata drives.

Yes, I use something similar.

[rafletcher]

Thats what I used to clone an iMac rust drive to SSD.

[Feanor]

Be aware that the simple USB-SATA cables only work with laptop 2.5" spinning rust HDDs, not desktop 3.5"ones.
It's because USB supplies 5v, and that's fine for the laptop drives. But the 3.5" drives need 12v too.
So the adapters for these will have a 12v PSU as well.

[onerousdeporte]

I don't think that there's a huge amount to choose between them if you're just looking for a one off use. I'd want at least USB3 for speed.  If you're looking for something that you want to keep for a while and will deal with drives that are current now and might need to be played with in the future, things become more expensive as NVME comes into the picture.

https://tinyurl.com/ycxvj4rr (amazon link)

 is something I'm toying with buying at the moment to help me deal with a spinning rust/2.5" SSD and NVME moves but it's probably overkill for your situation right now.

Thanks but that is out of my league price wise but do have a sata drive powered thing.

I use one of these for copying from old sata drives.

Thank you, that looks perfect.  Used to have one a drive casing that was perfect for this but that got stolen.

Be aware that the simple USB-SATA cables only work with laptop 2.5" spinning rust HDDs, not desktop 3.5"ones.
It's because USB supplies 5v, and that's fine for the laptop drives. But the 3.5" drives need 12v too.
So the adapters for these will have a 12v PSU as well.

Yeah but this is just for a 2.5 drive so the machine can have an ssd and a new windows install and keep a machine going for a while longer.   

[Bledlow]

I've cloned a couple of HDDs to SATA SSDs using a basic enclosure such as this - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284003374573?chn=ps&var=585465138933&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&amdata=enc%3A1GiSWhu9FR3mFLeUvEGBKwg26&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-134428-41853-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=585465138933_284003374573&targetid=1647205088800&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9046111&poi=&campaignid=17206177401&mkgroupid=136851690655&rlsatarget=pla-1647205088800&abcId=9300866&merchantid=110335860&gclid=Cj0KCQjw6KunBhDxARIsAKFUGs_3UPb0GEbEGMs7MQcXXfc6U6Gg1mBhslT9agStpoMAi18X1gc42z0aAsz1EALw_wcB -

Though not quite that cheap, IIRC.

It'd work for a 2.5" spinning drive as well, of course. Indeed, we have an ex-laptop HDD now residing in such an enclosure as a backup drive, after the laptop (Mrs B's) broke in ways unrelated to the HDD.

[Lightning Phil]

Have you checked to see if you have a spare Sata connector inside your PC? You could just plug the SSD into that and clone away. If you have a DVD drive you could temporarily use the Sata connector for that.

[Gattopardo]

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